


Just an Hour

by OverlyCheerfulRat



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Death, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Mental Breakdown
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-23
Updated: 2019-04-23
Packaged: 2020-01-24 07:00:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18566311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OverlyCheerfulRat/pseuds/OverlyCheerfulRat
Summary: The dollmaker can bring their son back to life. Sort of.





	Just an Hour

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Dollmaker](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/475603) by ALTER. 



Sometimes Newt wanted to kill the parents he saw on the street. Why should they get to watch their children grow, when his own child never got the chance? Joseph hadn’t even been five years old when he got sick. It wasn’t fair that he was gone, that Newt and Tina were left with photographs that smiled and waved and only reminded them that they would never hold their baby again. He had wanted to be a healer, he called Newt “Mummy” and Tina “Papa”, he loved to watch magic.

“All I need is a strand of his hair and a treasured possession.”

Tina didn’t believe it when she saw the doll in the coffin. The dollmaker smiled at them with too many teeth. “Go ahead,” he urged. Newt hesitantly reached into the casket, then gasped and picked the doll up, beaming. “My baby,” he whispered, tears welling up. It still looked like a doll to Tina, but when he ran over and put it into her arms, it came to life. “Joseph?”

The “instruction manual” was simple, the dollmaker said. Keep Joseph in the house, because outside, he would be nothing but a lifeless doll. And only spend one hour a day with him. “Any longer, your mind makes him real. You forget he died, forget this is only a doll. So keep an eye on the hourglass.”

It only took a week for Newt to forget about the hourglass rule. 

“Do you remember what I told you after the funeral?” Newt looked up at Tina with a confused smile, setting aside the storybook he’d been reading to the doll. “What funeral?” Tina took a deep breath. “Joseph’s funeral, Newt. The dollmaker said we have to put the doll away after an hour, put that thing back in the box-!” “I’m not putting our son in a box.”

She bit her lip, then grabbed his arm. “Tina? What are you doing?” Newt didn’t sound upset until they reached the door, at which point he clung tighter to the doll. “Let go of me, please, Tina.” “No! I am taking you outside so you can see what you’re really holding,” she snapped. Newt shook his head frantically, but she eventually succeeded in pulling him outside.

The sound he made when he saw the doll in his arms was inhuman. Tina flinched as Newt screamed and collapsed, rocking back and forth. “Newt…” He didn’t react. When she brought him back inside, his face lit up and he kissed the doll’s forehead. “Joseph! I thought… I must have imagined it,” he laughed. Tina watched his face for a long moment before reaching out to touch the doll.

“You must have.”


End file.
